Code for life

Developing bioinformatics methods: by who and how

Grant Jacobs • Jan 10, 2010

[caption id="attachment_1045" align="alignright" width="350" caption=""Code Monkey" (Source: wikipedia)"][/caption] In my view the best method developers–generalising here–are those who are both an advanced user and developer of the method they are developing. They are "scratching an itch", developing the method to serve their own needs. Before elaborating on this, … Read More

Career ruminations

Grant Jacobs • Jan 10, 2010

While I drum up today’s post, those of you who enjoy ruminating where careers take you, have taken you and might take you yet, there is an interesting post and a great discussion over at Nature Network by cell biologist and writer Jennifer Rohn, In which it all happened, on her Mind the Gap blog. Read More

More on "What is a computational biologist?" (and related disciplines)

Grant Jacobs • Jan 08, 2010

I'd argue (good) computational biology is more than computer science + biology, it is computer science (or statistics, mathematics, etc.) + biology + theoretical science. Ruminating, mulling over something relatively trivial can be fun... Sandra Porter has a recent post, Digital biologists, bioinformaticists, and computational biologists: more thoughts on the question of names … Read More

Science writing vs. science journalism

Grant Jacobs • Jan 07, 2010

Science writing aims to make the reader an insider to the science at hand; science journalism science reporting leaves the reader an outsider to the science. There's a lot of talk about blogging or some other "new media" variant replacing mainstream meadia (MSM) science journalism, for example in a recent post at Neuron Culture, … Read More

Retrospective: Credits, Dis-credits and mis-credits.

Grant Jacobs • Jan 05, 2010

Are authors of scientific articles given their rightful credits? Below I've reissued an article I wrote almost eight years ago, suggesting a (partial) solution to the issue of correct credit in scientific papers. Make of it what you will. Journals have since made some progress towards addressing this issue, although not in the manner I envisaged … Read More

New decade cartoon: Calvin on scientific progress

Grant Jacobs • Jan 03, 2010

Artist: Bill Watterson Given the recent “Climategate” silliness, I find the final bubble’s mention of weather appropriate. OK, weather and climate are two different things, but you know what I mean. For those that really want to know, this was originally published in December 1989. It seems decade after decade we’re not getting there with the … Read More